Mobile Ubuntu Gamble to Fizzle Out in June

Canonical will end its support for Ubuntu Touch phones and Ubuntu-powered tablets in June, and that it will shut down its app store at the end of this year. The company previously had signaled the system's demise, but it had not fixed a date. With Ubuntu Touch, a unified mobile OS based on Ubuntu Linux, Canonical hoped to establish a marketable alternative to Android and iOS.

Canonical this week said that it will end its support for Ubuntu Touch phones and Ubuntu-powered tablets in June, and that it will shut down its app store at the end of this year. With Ubuntu Touch, a unified mobile OS based on Ubuntu Linux, Canonical hoped to establish a marketable alternative to the Android and iOS platforms. The news came on the heels of Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth’s recent disclosure that the company had decided to drop Ubuntu’s Unity desktop environment.